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The House of Sweden - Our Capital's Hidden Gem

The House of Sweden is a hidden gem in Georgetown, Washington DC which appears to be preparing to sail the great Potomac. Home to the Swedish Embassy offices for Swedish-American liaisons, upscale corporate apartments and offices, the structure is regal and stable - thrusting its sleek and organic geometry out towards the Georgetown Harbour. It is no surprise the architects chose a location out of the typical hustle and bustle of the capital’s city-centre. The wholesome riverfront environment speaks to the architectures unassuming grace.

Meant to transcend from architecture to political and lifestyle elegance, the House of Sweden was commissioned in 2002, and completed in 2006. It is a physical representation of Swedish values such as openness, transparency and democracy; House of Sweden is the flagship of Swedish public diplomacy in the United States. The Anna Lindh Exhibition Hall provides facilities for business and industry events, and the Alfred Nobel Conference Hall offers fully-equipped, multipurpose conference and meeting rooms. The rooftop terrace, overlooking the Kennedy Center and the Watergate, offers a memorable view for outdoor events.

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House of Sweden in Washington, D.C. by Wingardh Architects (Photo: Carly Erin O'Neil)
Through a design competition between five of Sweden’s top architects, the design chosen was one by Wingardh Architects of Gothenburg (Gert Wingardh and Tomas Hansen).

Landscape architect Johan Paju designed a five 'room' garden complex for the new Embassy. Each of the 'rooms' has a separate microclimate and illustrates a different theme of the Swedish countryside. The themes include: winter terrace, the barren rocky garden, the wild flower meadow, the forest pond and the birch forest.

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Photo: Carly Erin O'Neil

The building includes 70,000ft² of floor space, two floors of Embassy facilities and a conference centre with exhibition areas and an auditorium. The top two floors of the building are a residential area, sold as luxury riverside apartments to private buyers, and there is a single-level car parking garage.

The design uses building materials and systems used in Sweden to showcase the country’s resources. The building is a glass design interspersed with a framework of wood. While appearing to be made entirely of wood, the process of using six panes of glass alternately layered with computer generated images allowed for the typical Scandinavian bleached, wooden appearance, which the humid Washington DC environment couldn’t sustain. This gives the building a transparency, intended to allude to openness. Inside, the structure has a large wooden component, and the outer walls are largely glass to allow for significant daylight to flood the complex. At night, the lighted panels appear to glow, like a golden sail docked on the river walk. The light from within the building adds to this aura. The architect remarked it was “like a Nordic light in the dark Southern night."

The House of Sweden architects, true to the Swedish oeuvre, focused highly on sustainable strategies, including using renewable building materials, construction recycling, and alternative heating and cooling systems that substantially reduce energy and equipment lifecycle costs. Another key to sustainability, aside from the maximizing of daylight, is the green roof. This helps the building absorb and filter storm water runoff, while simultaneously reducing interior building temperatures and extending the life of the roof membrane.

Inside, the architecture is the décor, like a magical reflecting glass. This allows for seamless integration with both the aesthete and the indispensable. The ceiling is layered with maple panels cut through with holes hiding the lighting components. Like a starry night, or snow falling in slow motion, the light sneaks down unobtrusive. The intent was to filter light "like an inverted cloud," according to Gabriella Augustsson, the Swedish foreign ministry's project manager for the building.

Rock Creek, which glides into the Potomac along the building's east side, beckoned to the designers to create their own symmetry alongside, contained in black marble. The waterway appears to flow through a glass wall into a manmade pond that collects under the floating main staircase. According to the ambassador the black water is meant to “recall the mysterious, bottomless tarns found in the deep woods”. He notes that the milky white panels of glass on the staircase, which connects exhibition space to the Alfred Nobel "black room" below, were dotted to defuse the light into fog. “Mix a little fog, the black tarn and dense maple woods and then you have Sweden," Lund says.

House of Sweden has been awarded Sweden's most prestigious architecture award; the Kasper Salin Prize for best building. Announced on the 16th of November 2007, the award is a demonstration of quality and incorporation of the native and inspiring countries’ best resources. The ideal of speaking two languages but finding a common element of openness not only between nature and man, but between two nations and mankind himself is defined in this design. It is silent, yet strong, proving our nation’s capitol a worthy home.

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Photo: Carly Erin O'Neil

CarlyErin O'Neil is a contributing freelance editorialist-photojournalist, and a gypsy at heart. Residing in the NYC metro-area, but seeking refuge in the world around her, you can see more of her work on two blogs: eternalsoulshine.blogspot.com (writing, abstract photography, self portraiture) and milkmanstudionyc.blogspot.com (travel, commercial, co-author with Joao Carlos).

11 Comments

The design architects were Wingardh Architects, but the architects in charge of making this happen and responsible for the Construction Documents and Construction Administration are VOA. Small local dc design studio company that does very high quality work. I believe somewhere in the text they should be mentioned their name, as they were an important element in the process of making this elegant building happen.

Not that I am kissing ass, but they were part of the team, and therefore they should be given some credit. Just tired seeing buildings getting done where all credit is not given to the right people who were actually involved doing it.

I agree--based on the photos and text, it looks like there are some nice moments, details and spaces in this project, but altogether I don't find it to be as great as the writer has. At first glance, and without the glass and mesh cladding, it looks a lot like this place down the street from me:

Wow, I admit i have not seen this place in person, but it looks like it is a refit of a building from the late 60's early 70's. I don't think that a retro look was intentional and from the overall design I can't imagine that irony plays a part in this.Aside from the ceiling panels, this building seems to be a soulless IKEA prefab.
I suppose this exercise is payback for GM buying SAAB auto division and running it into the ground. Sad, but D.C. deserves this bunker perched on the Potomac.

@uhhhhh Would you care to elaborate? If not, I shall assume your palate is not fully developed and that you are satisfied with the offerings from the children's menu, i.e. kerbflash served the way you like it.

you can assume as you will; my PALETTE* is fine and while i like to comment on your analogy, i can't because it makes no sense.

within a month of its opening, the building already looked decrepit. the facade materials have worn down considerably and from a distance (i.e. views to the waterfront), it resembles a broken modernism from an era past.

the stairs around the perimeter are poorly proportioned, and may 'seem' fine but are difficult to circulate. generally, when materials have seams, they are designed to align with one another, or to stagger with some sensibility. these don't.

when initial renderings were released, i was excited. impressed. hopeful that this building would stand as an example that good design could be harnessed in our city. i was wrong. and whenever i come back to visit, i am reminded of it.